02/24/2011Hudson Valley Community College Math Professor Tweeting from Final NASA Space Shuttle Launch

Hudson Valley Community College Mathematics faculty member Joel Glickman is in Cape Canaveral , Florida today as part of a group of lucky Twitter users viewing the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

Glickman was tapped last fall to be part of the NASA "Tweetup," at one of the NASA Space Shuttle program's final launches. When technical difficulties grounded that launch, he and his fellow Twitter VIPS were asked to return for the scheduled launch today at 4:50 p.m.

He is one of 150 Twitter users who were chosen from a pool of roughly 3,000 applicants across five continents for NASA's "Tweetup" meeting at today's space shuttle launch. Discovery's upcoming flight will be the shuttle's 39th and final voyage into space before NASA retires its orbiter fleet later this year.

In addition to his teaching duties at Hudson Valley, Glickman is a pilot and a longtime follower of the NASA Space Shuttle program. He and fellow Tweeter Phylise Banner of Saratoga Springs, will be covering the launch in tandem today.

You can follow their adventures today at Glickman's Twitter stream - http://twitter.com/joelglick. Or watch his live video stream from his specially-made "hatcam" mounted on to the brim of a baseball cap. http://justin.tv/nasatweetup. Joel will be streaming live on and off throughout the day heading toward the late afternoon launch.

If you would like to get in touch with Joel, contact the Hudson Valley Community College Office of Marketing and Communications at (518) 629-8071.

Founded in 1953, Hudson Valley Community College offers more than 70 degree and certificate programs in four schools: Business; Engineering and Industrial Technologies; Health Science; and Liberal Arts and Sciences; and an Educational Opportunity Center for academic and career training. One of 30 community colleges in the State University of New York system, it has an enrollment of more than 13,000 students, and is known as a leader in distance learning initiatives and workforce training. Hudson Valley has more than 65,000 alumni.